The rest of the night was relaxing at home- exciting I know, but after a super long week that’s all I needed.

Saturday, Drew and I ran around shopping at Target and Ross. Just might have blew all my birthday money at Target…going in “just to look” is just not an option…oops. I did end up with cute and totally necessary things, okay?…don’t judge me. 😉

That evening we went to the Hershey Outlets for some more shopping with my parents and then out to eat at the Gingerbread Man for Wings and Beer…my kind of night.

Over the week I had seen that there was a 5k happening in Gettysburg…10 mins down the road…I’ve really been getting into racing and if I can do it every weekend- I will! Anytime I don’t have to travel far I’m all for it. On Sunday morning I woke up and my mom went to the race with me (while Drew stayed warm and toasty in bed….. have I mentioned before how he hates to run? He does.) The weather was absolutely perfect race weather. As much as I love hot weather, we all know that 40-50 degree weather with a slight chill but sun is perfect! It just happened to be 48 degrees at the start. Not too cold at all.

I love that Oiselle Team makes it super easy for me to get dressed on race day! 🙂 With my Lesley Knickers on too!

The 5k followed the start of The Blue/Gray Half Marathon. Now obvioulsy with the history of Gettysburg, the race decide to divide up runners from the North and South (Confederate and Union Soldiers, hence Blue & Gray-haha!) and has them “compete” against each other. I think that this is a fun little theme to the race. There were a TON of people doing it for a small local race. It was fun seeing the people getting ready for the half and getting to watch them start also!

We started shortly after. I had no idea of the course or anything I was in store for. Now as famous as Gettysburg is, this race was actually on the opposite side of all the battlefields. The first mile was fast, flat, and between a lot of cornfields. I was careful to not try and start out too fast because I was trying to prevent any side stitch problem. I fortunately found a girl who had a pace that I liked and tried to stay with her for the first mile. I stayed with her for about half a mile until I realized that I felt really great and decided to pick it up some more. I’m glad the first mile was marked on the ground. I finished one mile in 8:30. I was really happy seeing that number! Pretty much right where I wanted to be to keep pace for the rest of the race.

I’m guessing- because nothing else was marked- that by about a mile and half we made a turn and all I saw ahead of me was a half a mile of a BIG, steady incline. You know when you are can just see people going up, and up, and up, and you are all the way at the bottom and all you can think is ohhhhhhh, crap? Yah… It was like that. That incline was not fun at all and my calves were killing me but I made it. I kept repeating to myself “You’re okay, you’re okay.” and finally trucked it up that hill. After this I made a turn down some nice flat, windy roads, one with a little downhill to which I was extremely thankful for! I had no idea what mileage I was at this point but I knew the end was near. I made one turn and got back to where we started our loop when I looked up and realized that the finish line was up another long slope. CRAP. I knew it wasn’t far but it felt like forever. Getting close I felt someone on my heels and this girl about my age caught me…now me and my competitiveness kicked in and I sprinted my heart out to beat her. (I did…thanks girl for the push!) It was the final motivation I needed!

up the hill! in pain, from that face…

Final Time: 27:43-31/101 runners

Am I really happy with this time- yes, kind of. I want it to be better than this of course, and for the amount of time I’ve been running (lately…pretty much none…) this is about where I should be. Those are my normal paces and to get any better I need to run more- I definitely know this. My coaching season has just ended this past week so I will finally have some time after work to hopefully run more! So on that note-

Who wants to be my running buddy? 🙂 Really, I know I would run more if I had a friend to do it with. Please be my friend.

oh gosh I hate those type of races, it is crazy when a hill just pops up. No time for mental preparation at all. I adore how much you have been racing, so awesome. super impressed over here. glad you had fun on your bday, chips and all!